


Happy Birthday

by ChrisWacky



Category: Bug Fables (Video Game)
Genre: Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Spoilers for Leif's Request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:27:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24632296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChrisWacky/pseuds/ChrisWacky
Summary: Leif's relaxing day off with his family takes a somber turn when he learns he chose to visit on a very important anniversary.
Relationships: Leif/Muse (Bug Fables)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 70





	Happy Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE do not read if you have not finished Leif's request.

An army of Lost Sand bandits outnumbered Leif, but he wasn't fazed. This wouldn’t be the first time he found himself backed into a corner. In the face of insurmountable odds, a cool head would always prevail. Wielding an awesome power in his grasp, he raised his arm…

…and slammed down his Tidal Wyrm Spy Card on the table.

“All your enemy cards are numbed, leaving you wide open,” Leif proclaimed. “That’s match point.”

Tod groaned and flung the Spy Cards in his hand into the air. That was the fifth match of Spy Cards in a row he had lost to his “uncle” and he was ready to throw in the towel. His grandfather was sitting off to the side, laughing over how passionate the two seemed to be getting over a simple card game.

“You’re too good at this game, Uncle Leif!” Tod whined. “You have the best cards!”

Leif smirked. “We didn’t fight deadly monsters all over Bugaria to be bad at card games.”

Muze had just finished preparing her homemade Baked Yams when she heard the cards hit the floor. Normally she would scold her son for making a mess, especially after she went to such great lengths to make their house spotless for Leif’s visit, but she couldn’t stop herself from smiling at seeing her family having such a good time together.

“Alright, let’s not make a mess,” she spoke gently. “Tod, clean up and get ready for dinner.”

“Okay, Mom,” Tod said.

While Tod picked up the cards he scattered on the floor, Muze brought the Baked Yams to the table. They were glazed with honey for extra sweetness and looked positively appetizing. On top of the Leaf Omelets and Mushroom Salad Muze served earlier, Leif had eaten better that day than he had in decades.

“Muze, you’re spoiling us,” Leif said. “Do you always eat like this?”

“If only!” Muze’s father chimed in. “Muze prepared all this food for your visit. Normally she only works this hard when he husband comes home. She must really like you already.”  
  
Muze’s face turned red. “Father! I’m just being a good host!”  
  
“We appreciate it, Muze,” Leif assured. “We didn’t think we were worth the trouble.”

Muze’s father gave Leif a hearty slap on the back, one hard enough to possibly leave a hearty bruise. “Hear that, Muze? He’s a hero _and_ he’s modest!”

Modest, huh? His team would probably be giggling to themselves over the mere suggestion. Leif had been acting politer than usual since he came over to visit for the day. Some of the restraint was intentional. Being a relatively new fixture to an already established family unit pressured him to leave the usual dry wit at the door and try to make a good impression.

The biggest reason, however, was that he just felt naturally happy being there. They accepted him so quickly, like they had known him their whole life. Being with Muze’s family just felt…organic.

Tod placed his organized Spy Card deck on the dinner table before taking his seat. He looked beyond thrilled to see that his mother had made his favorite meal.

“He should come over more often if it means more Baked Yams!” he shouted before chowing down.

Leif chuckled. “Took the words right out of my mouth.”

The four enjoyed their meal together, sharing stories all the while. While Muze’s family was eager to hear Leif detail his adventures, he tried his best to steer the conversation away from himself, getting them to talk about themselves for a change. They talked a lot about Muze’s husband. Leif was floored to realize he had already met him several times on his journey. To think a guy like Hawk actually tied the knot…

As dinner wrapped up, Muze’s father looked outside to see the sun was beginning to set. His eyes widened.

“Shoot!” he exclaimed. “We lost track of time! We gotta leave while there’s still daylight.”

“Leave?" Muze asked. "Where do we have to go?"

“You know what today is, don’t you?”

“Today…” Muze whispered to herself, staring off as she wracked her brain. “…Oh! Father, I’m sorry. When Leif said he was coming over I completely shoved it out of my mind.”

“Don’t worry about it. There’s still time. Let’s go.”

Muze frowned. “Now? But we have company.”

“Leif’s family! He’d probably want to see her too!”

“What are you two talking about?” Leif said.

“Today’s my mother’s birthday,” Muze’s father explained. “She hasn’t been with us for a long time, but we always visit her at the cemetery on her birthday.”

His mother? He couldn’t mean… 

“Did you know her?” Muze asked Leif. “Her name was also Muse.”

The millisecond Muze spoke her name, Leif made an ungodly noise, like he was choking. He was reeling, wondering how he had the audacity to forget his wife's birthday, and why on _that day_ of all days did he have to decide to visit. Muse was inevitably going to be brought up, but he never imagined like this.

His family looked at him with alarm. He cleared his throat.

“Yams…Didn’t chew ‘em enough.”

* * *

Leif had little excuse to have avoided the cemetery after all this time, what with it being just a few klicks outside of town. He knew where it was. But he also knew who would be there.

The idea of finding the graves of bugs he knew a lifetime ago…unsettled him. Seeing their names marked on the ground would only hammer home that everything he once held dear was lost. Inciting that form of existential dread wouldn’t do him any good in long run. Even so, there was one grave he knew he’d have to seek out one day. With the help of Muze’s descendants, he finally found it: the grave marker with his dead wife’s name.

“Sorry we’re late, Mother,” Muze’s father said upon arrival. “You know I’d never forget about you, right? Even brought a new face with us this time.”

Muze’s father turned expectantly to Leif, who was awkwardly rubbing his arm underneath his coat. He swallowed, then spoke.

“Hey there…”

Oh Venus, what was he supposed to call her? Auntie? Grandma?

“…you.”

That’ll do.

But his mind drew a blank after getting that far. Seeing him struggling to speak on his own behalf, Muze stepped in.

“Thank you for guiding him to us, Grandmother,” she said. “He’s been a real treat to have around. Maybe someday we can get the whole family to visit together.”

She held Tod close to her. He seemed unsure how to feel. Perhaps he was too young to remember her, if they ever met at all, or maybe the gravitas was lost on him. He looked up to Leif, his expression curious.

“Were you close to her too, Uncle Leif?” he asked.

Leif squirmed. “No. We never really knew her.” It was a half-truth. He knew Muse the explorer, but not Muse the mother. She lived an entire life without him, one he was insatiably curious about. “…What was she like?”

Muze's father was eager to field the question. “Mother was one of the most confident moths I knew. She wasn’t afraid to speak her mind on anything. Used to lecture my antennae off practically every day.”

“She was a great cook too,” Muze grinned. “I loved going over to her house for dinner! Those Baked Yams were her recipe, actually.”

Leif was wide-eyed. “Really?” The Muse he knew couldn’t even hold a kitchen knife properly. He wished he could’ve stuck around for that phase.

Muze and her father continued to share anecdotes from their past for the next hour. They shared pleasant and bitter memories alike, from daily habits to falling outs to mundane traditions like going to the beach every summer. Every story was told with nothing but fondness in their voices and punctuated with a wistful smile. Leif could glean a lifetime of respect just from their expressions.

_Muse, you were a good mother, weren’t you?_ Leif thought. _We wonder if we could’ve been a good father…_

Darkness began to set in, cutting their conversation short. Muze’s father was surprised that time flew by so quickly. He appreciated the opportunity to celebrate his mother’s life instead of just quietly reflecting on it.

“We better get a move on. Thanks for coming with us, Leif. Tradition’s more fun with a fresh face.” Muze’s father turned to his mother’s grave marker once more. “Hope you had fun, Mother. See you next year.”

After Muze and Tod gave their goodbyes, everyone made their way home. Leif, however, lagged noticeably behind, as if his subconscious was dragging him back by the scruff. They were almost out of the cemetery. He needed an excuse not to leave.

“We-!”

Leif blurted the word without thinking through the rest. His family was staring out him now, waiting for the rest of the line.

“We…think we dropped out Spy Cards back there. Sorry, go on without us.”

“We can wait for you,” Muze assured.

“No, we’ll be fine.”

Leif’s response was immediate and snappy. His family seemed confused by his insistence but respected his wish regardless, moving on ahead.

He hurried back to the grave marker. Despite the rush, once Leif was alone with Muse, he suddenly felt put on the spot. Not even his performance with Chubee gave him this much stage fright.

"Hey, Muse. Happy birthday. Sorry, we...kinda forgot.”

Didn't take long for this to start feeling awkward.

“Uh...you'll be happy to know everyone's doin' pretty well down here. Your grandkid is an amazing mother, and your son’s a really compassionate guy. You must be proud.” He paused again. “What else...you've seen our new team, right? They’re a fun bunch, those bugs. Kabbu's kind of a square, but he's got a big heart. And Vi? You two would've practically been sisters. We don’t think Bugaria could’ve handled the two of you teaming up. It’s thanks to them we can talk to you like this...we would do anything for them.”

As nice as it was talking about the bugs closest to him, Leif knew he had more important things to tell Muse than just complete fluff. He sighed.

"We're sorry we left you behind, Muse. Even knowing there was family who depended on us, we still weren’t careful enough. Hearing that you had a good life is such a comfort, but we still abandoned you. We’ll never get to care for you, or speak with Elizant again, or even forgive our team for abandoning us… We’re sorry for letting you all down.”

Leif shook his head, then let out a faint laugh. “If only that was all that needed to be said…”

The was still the fact that he was a magical cordyceps hiding and wriggling around in her husband’s thorax, hijacking his memories and emotions.

How could he even begin to navigate that subject with her? He didn’t even like navigating it himself.

“Would you love us like this, Muse? If we were just a shell? Or would you turn away in disgust? How would everyone react…if they knew the truth?"

His friends told him not to doubt who he was, that no matter what he truly was he still never faked being Leif. Yet if he were truly Leif, he wouldn’t feel so strange talking to Muse so intimately. If he were Leif, he wouldn’t have to fear his family or the kingdom learning what he really was and rejecting him as some kind of monster. Nobody knew the actual "Leif" anymore, not even Leif himself.

“If you accepted us, Muse, we wouldn’t care what the world thought of us. We don’t think we could call ourselves ‘Leif’ if you saw us as an imposter. We…we wish you would hold us and say you'd care for me, no matter what.”

Leif felt selfish, pathetic even, for asking for validation from someone he let down, but he longed for that closure, and it passed him by in his sleep.

"Muse, we just want to say these feelings are ours. That this heartache is ours. That our love for you is _ours_. But we can’t. We only inherited them. Sometimes we doubt we’re even worthy of them. In a better world, Leif would’ve gotten to grow old and die alongside you. He could’ve been a part of all those amazing stories your kids shared. We wish you two could’ve had that life. We wish…”

Did he wish he had never been reborn this way? No, he could never say that. That would be a disservice to Muze and her family, to Kabbu and Vi, to the kingdom he fought so hard to save from tyranny, and, most importantly, to himself.

Leif exhaled. He felt like he just removed a ten-ton weight from his back.

“…It’s freeing to say all of this out loud. Vi and Kabbu would have said we were being ridiculous. Thanks, Muse. We wish you would’ve been this good a listener when you were alive. …Only joking.

“My existence might be an existential nightmare, but I’m still happy. We all are. No matter how much I doubt, that’ll always be true. I owe Leif so much for this life. I’m not giving it up for anything. The only way I know how to thank him is to live how he would. Maybe even better than he would."

The moon was out in full view now. The writing on Muse’s grave marker was getting harder to read. Conjuring his ice powers, Leif sculpted a birthday present for his beloved: a tiny ice flower. It was jagged and looked amateur, but it was hist first time forming anything that wasn't a cone or a block. The thought counted the most, right?

He stuck the stem of the flower into the grass.

“We're going to see your husband's life to the end. Happy birthday, Muse."

**Author's Note:**

> I meant to post this during console release to celebrate, but life got in the way and this story changed so many times. I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> Also, if anything in this contradicts any of the Lore Books...don't worry about it.


End file.
